Forum Moderators: martinibuster
R
That type of violation usually renders you a warning.
Have you searched your forum pages for any posts that talks about the ads?
edit: I found one member that had "click the ads" (no idea why) in his signature 2 weeks ago or so, I promptly removed it and haven't found anything after that (I do regular searches).
*I do not display adsense to logged in members. Just visitors and search engine hits.
*If I make any changes I make sure to talk to a adsense rep. So that they can review it and tell me if there are any problems.
~Always be honest about the content ads. Try to think when and where the users can find it useful. My clickthroughs are low but conversions are decent.
But seriously you don't need to worry too much about it. Try adsonar for now and Yahoo or MSN will soon be launching their own version of adsense. But I am unsure if they will allow forums.
Regards,
R
Regards,
R
Thanks for all the replies folks :)
On my site I still have the ads showing. I would have thought they'd disable the ads so they wouldn't appear if my accounts has been "disabled".
This email clearly states invalid clicks so I know its not some other violation of the TOS.
As a browse through previous threads here will reveal - they provide only one reason, invalid clicks, irrespective of why they've really closed your account.
All in all... there is a little piece of me that feels relieved. I was getting so angry with the earnings over the last couple of months and so far this month I had only earned $325 but I had more clicks and traffic then the previous months. Now I don't feel the need to run to the computer first thing in the morning to check the stats and get angry when I see that they're only a fraction of what I was getting. :)
If you break the ToS, in whatever way G deems to be "breaking", then ANY clicks at that point can be termed "invalid".
If you live in DooDooStan and G has plainly stated they don't allow Doodoostanians to run AS, then every click you send them is "invalid" as far as they are concerned.
it does NOT mean only that someone or yourself has been clicking ads in an inappropriate manner.
It's a low traffic board so those few dollars a month aren't worth the risk.
About the invalid clicks, Well this is how I see, I don’t think Google will cancel you if someone else besides you click on the ads with bad intensions. I think they smarter then that. If they did then a lot of accounts would be cancel by this method.
Living under the thumb of the Google regime is getting tougher every day. Luckily they kicked me out early on and let me back in. I realized to just not count their revenue at all and use it as a bonus.
Regards,
R
AdSense just does a lousy job of displaying ads is all. Forums should be big money-makers and selling ads to sponsors is a great idea.
That's a quite interesting issue, I had always thought that, as a deterrent, G had a line of "once you are out, you stay out".
ah! ads I seeee... very niceeee... click click click... No more revenue for you boy! now we shall rule! hahahahahahaha!
Nope don't think Google has NOT taken such situations into account. This is BASIC click fraud and must have been the first thing they must have thought of.
I removed Adsense from my forum site long time ago not from a fear but from economic value. It wasn't make money anyways.
That's why I like new visitors to my sites... Less worries about repeated clicks from the same users.
people are "afraid" to place the ads on forum pages.
That fear may be reasonable in some cases. We've seen other reports of forum members causing problems for site owners.
Sponsorships may be a safer method of earning revenue from forums.
Also, as has been discussed ad infinitum on these boards, "invalid clicks" can encompass more than fraud. For example, it's possible that Google might disable an account if the site was generating a lot of clicks from an audience (such as children) that didn't have the power to make a purchase decision and charge a transaction to a credit card. Those clicks might not be fraudulent, but they'd be "invalid" from an advertiser's perspective.
If your forum is targeted you should not have much trouble with invalid clicks or low conversion problems....So you see forums do give advertisers very targeted viewership and converts well if you have built the forum well.
Again, it depends on the audience. And let's face it: Not all forums are well managed. Many are filled with copyright violations (such as the use of third-party images without permission), and that in itself is a violation of Google's AdSense TOS.
To all those who are removing their ads from forums... why doesn't someone just email G and ask if forums are classified under chat sites?
I'm finding it really hard to not respond to the email I got. I feel like I should just to ask, but I know that I'll get a canned reply that will do me no good in the long run.
I don’t think Google will cancel you if someone else besides you click on the ads with bad intensions. I think they smarter then that.
Oh the pain, I'm convulsing in laughter.... you really give those PhDs too much credit.
I guess overall I'm concerned that Google simply doesn't ban the source of the clicks, or disclose the IP address so you can block the culprits. I've heard their nonsense about not being able to divulge IPs, but it was a visitor on YOUR web site, you already KNOW the IPs, you just don't know which of the IPs clicked like crazy on a Google Ad.
Considering this sometimes involves serious amounts of real money I would expect this situation to overflow into a California courtroom before long and/or some legislation on the books to handle such disputes so that the publishers have recourse.
If you break the ToS, in whatever way G deems to be "breaking", then ANY clicks at that point can be termed "invalid".
Really?
I wonder if the original poster had not invalid clicks, but, some other kind of TOS violation (adult content, adult language, disallowed website/forum theme, etc.).
